Artifact: Blue Linsey Woolsey Petticoat
Materials: Wool, quilted and stuffed
Dimensions: 33 1/2 x 102 in
Date: 18th Century
Origin: United States
Collection: LACMA
License: Public Domain
Ledger Entry: Woman's Petticoat
Department: Clothing
Customer: Mrs. Elizabeth Doleman
Ledger Page: 38
Imported From: Most of the ready to wear clothing sold in the Ramsay store would have been imported from England. Textiles were one of the largest departments of the store, indicating that most customers made their own clothing.
Product Description
A petticoat or underskirt is an undergarment worn under a woman's skirt or dress. Multiple petticoats were often layered either for warmth or to give the skirt a fuller appearance. Many petticoats were embroidered or otherwise ornamented to be worn with open-front dresses, or shorter over-skirts intended to reveal the petticoat.
Citation: Linda Baumgarten. Eighteenth-Century Clothing at Williamsburg. (Williamsburg, Va: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1986), 19.;
Historical Price: 2 shillings, 9pence per yard; Modern USD: $30.8
Product Variations
While only one complete whalebone petticoat appears , the databases record five purchases of 'petticoating' fabric for women to make their own. The prices range from one shilling eight pence per yard of petticoating to twenty shillings for the whalebone petticoat. All of these purchases were made by women consumers.
